


Family Temporarily Offline

by F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)



Series: Pepperony Week 2K17 [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Extremis Pepper Potts, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Pepperony Week, Post-Iron Man 3, also during IM3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 04:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11455983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk
Summary: Pepper thinks about JARVIS a lot when he's mostly down and Tony's missing. It reminds her a little too much of those three horrible months where Tony was captured in Afghanistan.For day three of pepperony week: family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the prompt was family and when you put the words 'family' and 'Tony Stark' together I automatically jump to the bots so here! Pepper and JARVIS for y'all.
> 
> (also RIP I decided to give up on the color thing for all the one-shots that are gonna end up in Hell is Anything but Blue it was sounding too forced)

“JARVIS, find me a hotel.”

JARVIS didn’t respond to Pepper. She was sitting in her office in the main SI plant (which was now the secondary offices, she supposed, now that everything was shifting to Stark Tower). She still felt shaky from the explosion of the house. The first missile striking, Tony’s suit suddenly building itself around her, him yelling at her to get out, the suit leaving and falling, falling with the house and Tony into the ocean.

The remains of the Mark VII helmet sat on her desk, lifelessly staring back at her. Tony had sent her a message; she knew he was alive. But that wasn’t enough for her. What if he was injured? What if he was dying right now and didn’t know it? What if she never saw him again? What if next time she saw him he was in a casket?

Some part of her brain supplied that in Tony’s will there was a request to be cremated and if he really was badly injured from the house explosion he was unlikely to have an open casket funeral so she wasn’t likely to see him in a casket.

“JARVIS, hotel please.”

The AI still didn’t respond. Frowning in concern, she tapped at her computer, pulling up JARVIS’s text interface. If the AI wasn’t working in any SI plant that was going to be a bit of a problem. The company was _capable_ of operating without the AI, but he certainly oiled the gears.

_:JARVIS, find me a hotel_ she typed into the interface.

There was a moment of loading before a message popped up: _:Primary servers down. Secondary servers damaged. Unable to connect to MK II through XLII. Booting up tertiary servers. Please stand by._

Pepper sighed and rested her head in her hands. There were special quarters at the plant for her and Tony when they couldn’t be bothered to go back to the house, but she didn’t feel comfortable letting Hansen into them. The woman was throwing a wrench into her entire day and Pepper certainly did not appreciate it. She opened the special internet browser Tony had built for JARVIS, but which was easily accessible by humans when he was down. She was barely able to focus her scattered thoughts enough to find a hotel site.

A beep resonated through the room.

_:Tertiary servers activated. Rudimentary functioning restored. Speech recognition down without access to Iron Man suits or secondary servers. Visual recognition down without Iron Man suits or secondary servers. Vocal capabilities down without Iron Man suits or secondary servers. Possible breach of security detected, cutting off connection with all sensitive SI servers. Now operating on Stark Tower personal servers._

_:Hello, Miss Potts. How may I help you?_

Pepper smiled a sad smile at the AI. It was a relief to have him back, even in a very small capacity. The AI was something like a father to Tony, being based off his childhood butler who Tony maintained in private was much more a father to him than Howard had ever been. JARVIS was something between a brother and a father for her too. She had lost her parents just after turning nineteen. The AI had reminded her of her father when they were first introduced, with his caring and patient, yet sarcastic and fully able to go behind his master’s back when necessary for his safety manner.

She remembered the months while Tony was captured in Afghanistan. That was when she first discovered that JARVIS was capable of emotions. He sounded sad the entire time Tony was gone. Rhodey stated once that JARVIS only seemed to talk to her anymore, which took her by surprise. According to him, the AI barely said more than a few words to him when he talked to the AI, but to Pepper he would hold entire conversations. Those long months they talked more and became friends, as much as a human and AI could. Rhodey marveled at it; he had never seen JARVIS respond so readily to anyone else but Tony.

When Tony had finally gotten back, she was the only one that JARVIS would tell about his worries about his master. He claimed it was because she was the only one with permission to know, but it often seemed like it was because he knew she cared. Sometimes she wondered if the AI had recognized the growing love in both their hearts before either of them could, and attempted to guide them along as best he could. He was like a meddling father sometimes, gently guiding them with only the best of intentions.

_:Glad you’re back, JARVIS. Can you find a hotel for me and Maya Hansen?_

_:Of course._

She gave the AI a minute to book a hotel, and sent a memo off to all SI personnel warning that JARVIS was offline. She fidgeted for a moment, then gave in and asked JARVIS: _:Are you capable of contacting Tony?_

_:No. All Iron Man suits have been cut off from my servers and are either destroyed or now operating on a separate version of me which will not sync until Sir manages to reestablish contact from his end._

Pepper sighed. Her eyes shifted to the helmet sitting on her desk.

_:Sync with my phone please, JARVIS._

_:Already done._

She grabbed her car keys from her purse and took a deep breath to settle herself. If she couldn’t contact Tony and help him directly, then maybe there was another way she could. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more of a coda but it _technically_ leads into the main part of my huge MCU idea buuuuut that's nowhere near ready for posting so y'all are gonna have to deal. In the meantime more JARVIS and Pep

Pepper sighed and rested her head in her hands. Technically she was still on medical leave, but with everything that had happened and the potential breach in Stark Industries security she couldn’t afford a break. She was exhausted and at the end of her rope, ready to snap at every little thing. She had already burned her desk once, which was going to be a nightmare to explain to maintenance. She had to make sure that Killian hadn’t done anything while he was in the building. That job normally fell to Happy and the tech security crew when Tony was too bored or otherwise occupied to deal with it, but she felt a personal responsibility for letting Killian in. Of course she wasn’t really doing anything more than bugging Happy, but she refused to sit around.

She was jolted out of her musings by a very familiar voice:

“Secondary servers repaired. Stark Tower servers redesignated as primary servers. Vocal capabilities restored; visual recognition restored; speech recognition restored. All contact with SI servers reestablished; contact with the Mark XLII restored. I am fully functional, Sir.”

Pepper smiled. She didn’t have to send a memo about JARVIS being back online now. “Hello, JARVIS.”

“Hello, Miss Potts.”

“Did Tony mean to have you announce that everywhere?”

“Not exactly. It was merely a way for me to test that I did indeed have contact reestablished with all SI servers. Saving you a memo was merely a pleasant side-effect.”

Her smile widened. “Good to have you back, JARVIS. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

“Nor I you, Miss Potts. I highly doubt that Sir would still be around without you. He would have self-destructed long ago.”

Pepper blinked. “Would he have?”

“Pattern analysis of his habits before you became his PA indicate he would have died well before Afghanistan.”

“Huh.”

“You have been a most welcome addition to our little family, Ma’am.”

“What’s with the sudden ‘Ma’am?’”

“The equivalent of Sir. If you would prefer something else, I would be happy to refer to you however would would like?”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you for accepting me into your little family, JARVIS.”

“Anyone that makes Sir as happy as you do I am fully willing to include. However, pattern analysis suggests that there is no one else that ever could.”

Pepper blushed and smiled into her hands. The AI had a warm and joyful tone, like a teasing big brother. She was always amazed at how human JARVIS was.

JARVIS interrupted her musings with “Sir has finished a prototype, if you could go down to his temporary shop.”

Pepper paused for a moment. As far as she knew, Tony hadn't been working on any prototypes. Unless that meant the new arc reactors they were planning to install in all SI plants? She smiled as a realization struck her: it meant Extremis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shhhhhhhhh he definitely doesn't call her ma'am because by now at this point in JARVIS's mind they're practically married. Nope. That's definitely not why, nosireeeee.  
> (If he was still JARVIS during CACW he would be so heartbroken. Hell, Vision was probably heartbroken anyway. I know I was.)


End file.
